NASA announced Thursday that it has signed contracts with three US companies to Help them develop their personal space station “People can visit, where they can live and work,” the head of the space agency, Bill Nelson, said in a statement.
But NASA also intends to use the services of these companies to meet their needs and send astronauts to conduct experiments on their stations. With good reason: In a few years, the famed International Space Station (ISS), which has housed astronauts for more than twenty years, will recede. explanation.
Incidents that are often a concern
The International Space Station was launched in 1998, and is now obsolete. The engine, the size of a football field, broke down repeatedly over several years.
In August, Russian cosmonauts detected a crack in the Zarya module, the first to be placed in orbit in 23 years. Problems far from isolated: Other cracks, and even air leaks, were reported by International Space Station astronauts in early 2021 and 2019. This year, the station also recorded a two-time drop in altitude. Last May, a hole was also discovered in one of the International Space Station’s robotic arms after orbital debris passed through it.
The Russian station section, where several technical accidents have occurred in recent months, is the most worrying. In July, the Zvezda module experienced an unexpected pressure drop when the thrusters on the Nauka module caught fire, deflecting the International Space Station which had made a one-and-a-half turn before swaying 180 degrees.
Admittedly, this accident did not cause any injuries and scientific experiments carried out on the International Space Station are continuing as planned. But the repeated events of recent years testify to the gradual and relatively advanced descent of the International Space Station.
Last April, senior space official Vladimir Solovyev, chief engineer of the company responsible for maintaining the Russian part of the station, warned about the obsolescence of a critical part of the International Space Station. He also pointed to a possible “avalanche” of damaged, or even impossible to use, equipment after 2025.
In the Russian segment, “about 80% of flight systems are at the end of their operational life, which means that once all systems have exhausted their operational life, permanent failure can occur the next day.
Vladimir Solovyev
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Online, NASA provides live tracking of the ongoing flight of the International Space Station over Earth.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86YLFooog4GM
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Towards use until 2030?
Despite this damage, the future of the ISS is officially guaranteed until 2024. The intergovernmental agreement to continue use of the ISS until that date has been renewed between the European Space Agency (ESA) for Europe, NASA for the US, and Jaxa for Japan, ASC for Canada and Roscosmos. for Russia.
Russia has officially announced that it will withdraw from the project in early 2025. The Russian Space Agency has also announced that it then wants to launch a manned space complex into low Earth orbit, called the “Russian Orbital Service Station”. Russia is also expected to cooperate with China on a future China terminal, which is currently under construction.
NASA itself has confirmed that it can technically operate on the International Space Station until 2028. But the US Space Agency and the European Space Agency (ESA) want to push the station’s operations until 2030. A review of the state of the station revealed on November 30NASA says it believes in the question:
The built plant has a 15-year life, with a safety factor of two, meaning it can last up to 30 years after launching its first unit in 1998. Boeing has acknowledged that US factory parts can last until 2028 and NASA agencies. Optimistic to extend the life of the International Space Station to 2030.
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To use the station up to that date, NASA must first obtain approval from the US Congress.
inevitable ending
However, NASA ensures that it is realistic about the lifespan of the International Space Station. “Structures cannot adapt to the long-term effects of spatial conditions,” he wrote in his audit. Radiation, extreme temperature changes, micro-meteoroids, orbital debris… many factors “affect the structure of the station and which will one day lead to its inevitable de-orbit.”
In addition, the cost of maintaining this space tyrant is huge. Over the past decade, NASA has spent between $2 billion and $4 billion a year operating and keeping the International Space Station in good working order. The US agency estimates that the plant’s maintenance costs will remain steady – about $3.2 billion a year – for the last years of its life. A hefty fee for a station, since entering orbit, would cost the space agency that sent the astronauts $150 billion.
Towards private station rental
Towards the end of the International Space Station, NASA hopes in the future to be able to hire the services of private companies to meet their needs, without having to fund the station’s operating costs. Hence the announcement of signing contracts with Blue Origin, Nanoracks and Northrop Grumman, which will be awarded by the US Space Agency, 130, 160 and 125.6 million dollars, respectively, to develop their space stations. It should be launched in the second half of our decade.
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Leasing space on a private space station would save NASA $1 billion a year. It wants to be able to send two astronauts into continuous orbit, conducting about 200 experiments a year.
But the space agency has never wanted to face the “emptiness” of the US presence in space. For this particular reason, it wants to operate the International Space Station through 2030. “This will help ensure a continued human presence in the United States in low orbit,” said Phil McAllister, director of the special station. NASA commercial flights. He added that “the existence of a hole (in this existence) would jeopardize future human expeditions beyond Earth, by delaying research.”
What do you do with the old and unused International Space Station?
It took 42 launch vehicles and spacecraft to put the International Space Station into orbit. Giant job. But bringing the 420-ton giant back to Earth may be more complicated.
And NASA clarified in its audit conducted on Tuesday, that it “is likely to be decommissioned and out of orbit for the International Space Station during this decade (…) after the end of its lifetime.” Under this hypothesis, the US space agency would gradually reduce the plane’s altitude to allow it to enter the atmosphere. This technique was observed in 2001 with the Mir station.
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In this March 2001 video, we see the Mir station’s molten debris returning to Earth before hitting the Pacific Ocean.
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To return to Earth in December 2030, the station’s altitude will begin to decrease between 2026 and 2028, depending on weather conditions. About 16% of the International Space Station is indestructible when it enters the atmosphere, as a result of which debris can fall on our planet. There’s no need to worry according to NASA, which guarantees that the crash site will be “oriented towards the uninhabited region of the South Pacific.”
Deorbiting the station is estimated to cost $1 billion. The costs will be shared among the various countries that have used the station for more than 30 years of good and sincere service.
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